


I'll Do You Proud

by Mandergee



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: AU for Post Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Angst, Gen, I Haven't Read the Comics, Major character death - Freeform, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, possible spoilers for the comics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-04
Updated: 2014-09-04
Packaged: 2018-02-16 02:41:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2252853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mandergee/pseuds/Mandergee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With three little words, his whole world changed. But Phil Coulson isn't one to give up hope, and he finds a way to hold on to it even in times of loss.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll Do You Proud

**Author's Note:**

> So I've seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and I know this isn't how it goes. I also have not read the comics, so I don't know if this happens or not. If you haven't seen CA:TWS don't read on. If you're in any way bothered by the death of any main character at all, don't read on. It's not a graphic death, it's just the mention.

“He's dead, Coulson.” The faint buzz of the overheads filled his ears, reminiscent of mosquitoes on warm summer evenings when he'd sleep under the stars in his father's tent. It was funny, he thought, how memories of his father would creep into his mind at the moments he'd least expect them.

“Who?” His first theory was Fury, and his throat worked rapidly to hold back the panic as he reached for the remote on his desk, pointed it at the office door and watched it slowly close.

“Who's dead, Maria?”

“Captain America. Steve.” _Did May feel this way when she got the news,_ he wondered, his stomach twisting violently as he pushed away from the desk and pressed speakerphone, let her voice fill the room and her rapid breathing join in concert with his. May had never told him _what_ she'd felt when he'd died, though he'd always suspected she'd had a hard time processing it- as hard a time as he'd had processing the news about his resurrection. “Steve Rogers is dead. We don't know how- just that Romanov and Barton recovered his body somewhere near the Triskelion. I thought you should know.”

“How did you find me?”

He'd rarely heard her laugh, the Maria Hill he knew being the type to keep her feelings as well hidden as May often did. The two of them were better at poker than anyone he'd ever met, but as she laughed now he could hear the pain seep through it. 

“It's Fury's secret base, Phil. I knew the location before you did.” The line went dead, and the tone that followed had him reaching out quickly to silence it. He barely had memories of Steve Rogers, the few encounters fresh in his mind as the tiny voice that was his childhood self cried out in excitement when  _Agent_ Coulson shook the legend's hand or listened to him speak.  _If I knew then what I knew now I doubt that wooden shield would have left my side at all._ The city streets had never been safer, and when he'd slept at night he'd slept knowing that somewhere out there was a man who held the real thing in his hands and never let it go.

 ____

A month later it arrived, the package nondescript and large enough that Koenig woke him up at dawn with concern creasing his forehead and lanyard anxiously twisting between his fingers. When he'd unwrapped it the colors shone bright despite smudges and scars that scraped across the red, white and blue in jagged lines. They were scars that bled hope, and as he wrapped his fingers around the handle to lift it up into the light, Phil Coulson felt a little bit of that hope bleed into him. 

_'I'll do you proud, Cap'_ , said a little boy who once thought he could save the world.

“I'll do you proud, Cap.” Said the man, who knew now that he could.

 


End file.
